<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (December 4, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a special note of gratitude to Ghazi.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 30px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 34px;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Letter: Welcoming Syrian refugees</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Having read Nick Gier's well-reasoned appeal ("Let's welcome Syrian Refugees to the Palouse," His View, Nov. 26), only a fear-obsessed ideologue would argue otherwise. Not long ago, a pastor - exploiting historic prejudices embellished by the lucrative Islamophobic industry - was frightening Idaho legislators about "Muslim infiltrators." Thus, Rep. Heather Scott and others see Syrian refugees as "Muslim invaders."</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our recent history suggests that most refugees emigrated as a result of various "Cold War" crises: Hungarians (1956), Cubans (1962), Vietnamese (1975); and post-invasion, Iraqis (2003). Further, even the most naïve would acknowledge that the present crisis is rooted in our "democracy/freedom" invasions. The war in Syria lies at the center, for which the U.S. bears no small responsibility. Thus, we also have the "we-broke-it-we-fix-it" obligation.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some also see refugees as tax burdens. Typically, however, there is a huge "free" benefit, exceeding any tax burden, for many refugees come already trained in various skills, costs having been incurred in their native land. And soon, refugees become taxpayers.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We are a nation of refugees/immigrants. We cannot lose sight of what has drawn struggling souls to the U.S. for centuries. To do otherwise is to tarnish our collective humanity and our sacred values. Indeed, there is reason to be more afraid of our domestic militias and gun-toting criminals than from refugees. Besides, the Statue of Liberty (originally an Egyptian peasant Muslim woman, per Smithsonian Institution) welcomes "the huddled masses, yearning to breathe free," with no religious test. Once, in 1939, the Liberty lady was ashamed when similar fear-hate hysteria rejected Jewish refugees.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">[And, incidentally, once a Muslim refugee/migrant, the undersigned devoted much of his adult life in service to Idaho, as a UI faculty and Moscow resident, a frequent consultant to the Idaho legislature, and as a citizen.]</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="text-align: start; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 700; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">S.M. Ghazanfar</span></p><p style="text-align: start; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Acworth, Ga.</span></p><p style="text-align: start; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="text-align: start; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Dr. S. M. "Ghazi" and Rukhsana Ghazanfar with friends . . .</p><p style="text-align: start; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/Benches/Ghazi_051013.htm">http://www.moscowcares.com/Benches/Ghazi_051013.htm</a></p></div></div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div>"If you limit your living to black and white, you miss the rainbow." <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- Unknown</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>